Q&A: Luckson Omoaregba of Warren Alpert Medical School

Photograph courtesy of Brown University/Cat Laine.

Luckson Omoaregba understands the power of college access programs. In 2021, the University of Rhode Island graduate and doctoral student at Johnson & Wales University was appointed director of pathway programs at the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University. As the position’s first director, he oversees close to a dozen programs that expose underrepresented middle and high school students and undergraduates to careers in medicine. In the past three years, the programs have served more than 350 students, particularly in urban districts including Central Falls, Providence, Woonsocket and at Shea High School in Pawtucket, where Omoaregba attended after moving to the United States from Nigeria in 2002.

He joined Rhode Island Monthly to discuss the future of medicine and how these programs can envision a new path forward for the youngest Rhode Islanders while alleviating some of the state’s health care shortcomings along the way.

Can you tell us a little bit about what you do here?

My work allows me to support the medical school’s vision to help underrepresented students in the state of Rhode Island — students as early as eighth grade all the way to undergrads — who are thinking about a career in health care and medicine. We host programs throughout the year, and these programs all circle around the theme of early exposure to health care careers and medicine. We have two programs that started in 2013 and 2018. One program, called Pathways to Medicine, has had participants who have gone through it from the high school level who have now gone into careers in public health and medicine, and the biomedical space. And we have a program called HealthCORE. So the work had been happening before I got here, but I think the role that I was brought into was to help provide a structure, plan and goal, strategically thinking about, ‘What is our end goal? What are the outcomes and how are we looking to reach that?’ And also maintaining the relationships and funding and all these really cool things that make the program run.

What’s the history of the pathway programs at the medical school?

Brown has had a relationship with Tougaloo College in Mississippi for fifty-plus years. We have the Tougaloo Early Identification Program that started in the eighties, and that program provided access to the medical school for students from a historically Black college through the Tougaloo EIP. Students are able to apply to a specialized assurance program. They are provided support when they get here. And I think that was one of the first forays for the medical school into providing a pathway for folks who are usually not here — having to bypass the MCAT, which is a huge barrier for underrepresented students for many different reasons.

If we’re speaking specifically about Rhode Island, our Pathways to Medicine program — started in 2013, led and run by our medical students — has been a consistent reminder of the influence and impact that the medical students can have. It’s led by our medical students with support from the physician assistant students from Bryant University and URI’s nursing and pharmacy program. Students come here on Saturdays from September to January or December, and they do the curriculum that’s been created to expose them to the clinical skills, information and knowledge around current health care and medicine. There’s a poster presentation that students present at the end of it, and they get partnered with a mentor.

Why is it important that we have these pathway programs available to students in Rhode Island?

I’m really taking this from our partners at the high schools — Central Falls High School [and] Shea High School [in Pawtucket]. One of the many things that they always tell their students is that the challenges of today within the biomedical space require a diverse group of talented, knowledgeable individuals to help us move forward. Historically speaking, a lot of industries have been very exclusive of different races [and] backgrounds. The data will show that when you have a homogeneous and like-minded group of people trying to solve a problem, they’re always going to miss people, miss an idea, miss something. From a human lens, the problems require a diverse talent pool — folks from different genders, socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, lived experiences — to tackle the challenges of tomorrow. From an equity perspective, there are students in our state who have not had the opportunities that others have. We owe it to those individuals to provide these opportunities for them to live a life that they dream about, and to have upward mobility and the ability to contribute to the state. They already have the potential, but we owe it to them to also invite them into the space to be part of the solutions.

Is there any data connecting the diversity in providers with health outcomes for diverse populations?

I’m in a doctoral program now, and I’m hopefully writing my dissertation on K–12 education and opportunities that are being missed to get students involved in the health care system. As part of writing my lit review, I was trying to answer that question. Here’s what we know. We know that primary care is the first line of attack when it comes to chronic ailment and issues that folks go through. Most people will interact with folks in the primary care space. What we also know is that individuals from marginalized communities are more likely to be primary care health care workers. You’re more likely to have folks from disadvantaged, poor ethnic backgrounds go into primary care because they see the connection of how having an internal medicine doctor, or having a pediatrician, [who] looks like them could have an impact on their community. And then what happens is when you have these individuals who are more likely to be folks of color, the health outcomes improve. Having somebody who comes from the neighborhood, understands your language, understands your background — that does wonders for the actual care of health. 

There’s a cultural aptitude that we’re really trying to get at. It’s important that we are communicating how positive health outcomes can support communities in a way that they understand, and part of that is helping our students from underrepresented communities see themselves as the people that can do that.

It’s interesting that you bring up primary care, given the shortage we’re seeing now in the state. How can these pathway programs help address those shortages?

The whole space of medicine has become more specialized. Folks who are going to medical school, who are accruing quite a lot of debt, they’re like, ‘Do I want to become an internal medicine doctor or a pediatric doctor or a nurse practitioner? Or can I go into a specialty where I will make a lot of money, pay off my debt?’ So I think there’s a challenge in the income breakdown of different specialties compared to primary care. I also think that for students who are coming into this idea of the world of medicine, I mentioned earlier that primary care is the first line of defense before things get really serious. I don’t think folks really grasp how important and crucial that is. But for us, a lot of our introduction of students into health care challenges or clinical case studies, it’s all primary care focused. We’re not directly telling kids, ‘You should go into primary care,’ but we lead with that in a lot of the work that we do.

You partner in many of your programs with the Central Falls and Pawtucket school districts. How did that come about?

Our partnership with kids from Central Falls and Pawtucket stems from grant funding from the Warren Alpert Foundation. We were able to engage in a project called SMART Plus. SMART is these robust intensive clinical spaces embedded in the schools that are literally like having your doctor’s office in the school. I think it’s a brilliant model. We’ve been able to build a plus side of this SMART initiative where we offer specialized [educational] programming from the fall to the summer. One of the programs that we run is an after-school program for eighth graders at Calcutt Middle School called Meeting in the Middle. This is a project that the medical students from our Latinx Medical Student Association and our Student National Medical Association have been running for the past two years. It’s been really impressive to see eighth graders who are looking to learn about a career in health care and medicine. And we host a career fair here where we bring folks from nurse practitioners to Pharm.D. students to cancer researchers to anybody in between to talk to them. We know that for students of color specifically, thinking about STEM careers, a lot of the work needs to be done very, very early, because unfortunately there’s not enough representation.

“There are students in our state who have not had the opportunities that others have. We owe it to those individuals to provide these opportunities for them to live a life that they dream about.” —Luckson Omoaregba

Can you talk about the programs you oversee for undergraduate students?

Brown has an early identification program with URI, RIC and PC, which is geared toward students who went to high school in Rhode Island and then are going to PC, RIC or URI. That program is geared to support them and provide an alternative way to apply to medical school. This allows them to bypass the MCAT and then apply through a specialized application program. You have to go to medical school here, and maybe after residency you end up coming back here and serving as a physician. We want to send a message that we need them here, because that’s how we actually move health equity forward.

So the MCATs have traditionally been a barrier for students of color?

Standardized testing in general. Number one, it’s expensive, right? There is money that it takes to take it and get prepared for it. Number two, there’s time that it takes to prepare. There are students of color out there from really underrepresented backgrounds who have gone through the process, but the challenge is those seem to be the exception and not the rule. You have the exceptional individuals who are able to do it, but we want to create a vast opportunity for more people to be able to do it.

You graduated from Shea High School. Can you tell us about your personal journey and how your experiences have informed the work that you do?

I’m a product of college access programs. As an immigrant from Nigeria, coming to the United States, education was the number one priority for my parents and my family. It was really through college access programs — through participating in the Upward Bound TRIO program and the [URI] Talent Development program as a college kid — that I gained the support, the mentorship, the structure, the accountability, the monetary support, all the things that I needed to be the person I am. So I have a close affinity for college access initiatives, and I think that it’s not a surprise that the work that I do now, it’s really all about college access for underrepresented students. My story is what connected me with these programs because it’s how I got here. I think being able to then create a loop back into the community I come from is very, very special.

Where is your favorite place in Rhode Island?

It’s going to have to do with food. I must say, I love Pho Horn’s in Pawtucket. Also, the University of Rhode Island, because I spent so much time there. I got my bachelor’s degree, I got my master’s degree there. I absolutely love the time that I spent there involved in the university in a lot of different ways.